Tuesday, April 13, 2010

"But new processors aren't the only improvement; Apple has also seen fit to increase the base RAM configuration to 4GB on all models and bump the hard drive and SSD options. And Apple claims battery life has been improved, with some models now going as long as 10 hours without plugging in."

Some would say that the new Macbook and Macbook Pro line is only a marginal upgrade over what is currently offered, but I see two points about these new notebooks which I find exciting. First, there's the claim of a 10 hour battery life. Manufacturers often exagerate these claims, but if it is anywhere close to what Apple is boasting, I see this as a good thing. In recent memory, ASUS has also been working to offer several notebooks that host just as much battery life like the UL series. Having a laptop that can run a full workday without having the beep beep beep of a low battery is one of the holy grails of portable computing and it looks like they are getting close! Part of the reason for this is NVIDIA's Optimus chipset. Instead of suffering with vampires like a discreet chipset, notebooks can now use an integrated chipset when all you are doing is Facebook and Twitter, only kicking in the more powerful GPU when you need to do something like video rendering. A more complicated notebook, sure, but it means we can get the best of both worlds! Now if they can trim down LCD power usage, we might just see 16 hour battery ratings!